Beta plugin versions

Beta plugin versions

This is where we release beta version of plugins made by Grand Order members. Any beta versions posted here are to be used “at your own risk”, so you can provide feedback, suggest improvements and generally help make the plugins and tools stable enough for proper releases.

Hopefully you’d like to help out! Just add your feedback in the commenting system below!

SongbookBBZ v0.95b

Zedrock has worked a bit on Songbook, so there is a new beta version to try: SongbookBB: The Zedrock Chapter! Nimelia is also working on the plugin again, looking at some bigger changes, so we might get a larger combined version in the future.

New scalable instruments slots container with two display modes
Perhaps the biggest issue with the previous SongbookBB was that the line of instrument slots grew so long, the plugin window filled up a considerable part of the screen. Now you can have access to all instruments even in a small SongbookBB window:
– Either as one long horizontal line of instrument slots, with a scrollbar
– Or as multiple lines accessible through button clicks

New instruments recognitionThis version recognizes the new fiddles and bassoons added in recent years. Instruments are recognized based on (among other things) the naming conventions in Maestro

Other fixes and changes
– The “Filters” and “Players list” have been split
– The position of the “Timer” and the “Wrong instrument warning message” has been moved from “Track list separator” to a new added line above the “Directory list”
– Fixed bug when switching local FR/DE client in EN language
– Changes to minimum size of main Songbook window
– The Songbook window can’t be resized beyond the user screen width and height
– Work on updating the “Players list”, which should be refreshed when users leave or join a fellowship/raid
– The fellowship leader is displayed in capitals in the “Players list”
– Maintain “Tracks list” aligned to right when scrolled

Notes

To load the plugin, install it in your plugin directory, start the game and type “/plugins load songbookbbz” (or use your favourite plugin manager)

You’ll need to set up the plugin anew: add instruments to slots, go through settings etc.

Don’t try to run both this plugin and the old one at the same time, that may lead to heartbreak and chaos

On first load, the plugin icon may not be in your old place. It will likely be somewhere near the top right of your screen.

There are still bugs related to the updating of the “Players list”. Clicking the “Player list” tab should update it.

This version has been tested and feels robust, but as always, use it at your own risk (especially with Winterstock looming)! Also, we’d love your experiences with it too, for further bug fixes and polish. Add your comments below!

33 Responses to Beta versions

I just set up the beta Babble, was not previously a Babble user. At first try it seems to do what it says on the box. Hooray!

A feature request:

Please let the output channel for filtered emotes be configurable. I wish to see emotes and /say in one chat window, and Standard in another as I often get 5-8 musicians’ instrument-ready messages in that channel within a few seconds and so for me having emotes in Standard sort of defeats the idea behind Babble.

I’d probably prefer to use one of the User Chat channels to display (filtered) emotes, but best if it was simply configurable as other people’s mileage may vary.

First, it’s grand to see you’re not caught by my overzealous spam filter anymore! Regarding the plugin: Simbo will have to go into details, but I think there were some limitations as to what chat channels he could direct the babble emotes to. You can get the setup you ask for still, though: When Babble is on, it just displays a “filtered standard channel” in your main chat window. So you could have /say and emotes (through Babble) there, then just enable the /standard channel in a different window. There it’ll show as usual.

This also means that you have to disable the /emote channel in your main chat window, else you get some double entries. And, of course, you must remember to load the plugin as soon as you log on, else you’ll wonder why no-one waves to you *grins*

Thank you for testing this! Alas, as Lina mentions, there are limitations on how plugins work with chat channels. Babble is not actually able to “block” emotes being received by the client, so all it can do is send a copy of “allowed” emotes to the standard chat channel and rely on you disabling the “emote” chat channel manually. And indeed it is the case that plugins can only write text automatically to the standard chat channel, and not to others. (Well, I believe this is the case. If you know of any other plugins you think are doing this, please let me know, and I can see how they work!)

The only suggestion I can make is perhaps I could add a “Chatterbug” style window to Babble, where filtered emotes could be shown (so they wouldn’t be sent to the standard channel, but just shown in this new window), along with any messages from any of the existing chat channels.

Simbo> “If you know of any other plugins you think are doing this, please let me know”

Lyrical(*) outputs to /say by default and any other output channel can be hardcioded into each “Lyrical line”. If I grok it right, Lyrical uses a trick with aliases and shortcuts and after setting it up, outputs in “Lyricsline.lua”, line 28.

Perhaps a similar trick could be used with Babble instead of the Turbine.Shell.Writeline call used?

I’d offer an attempt of this myself, but the only LUA I ever wrote was when trying to hack “BabbleHelper.lua” to output to /shout (perhaps not the wisest choice of channel) and I only ver looked into the LOTRO plugins API just now. So I leave it to you….

Your friend
Toadflax Nosely (Mrs.)

PS: Is this on Github?

PPS: Miz Lina, your site still marks me as a spammer when I try to post via Firefox

(*) Perhaps Poetical uses the same tricks as Lyrical, but I am not using it yet (it’s next on my list to introduce).

Alas, another limitation with plugins needs to be mentioned. You can indeed send output to any channels using shortcuts / quickslots, but this can only be activated by clicking on them manually. You can’t get a plugin to automatically run a short-cut for you. (My original intention for Poetical was for it to read out a whole poem for you, one line at a time, without you having to click individual lines, but alas this was not possible)

Also, when a short-cut is performed in a plugin by clicking (for example a /shout), it would send that to everyone else’s chat channel, not just yours.

This obviously wouldn’t work for Babble’s purpose, so it is limited to using Turbine.Shell.WriteLine to automatically output the emote to your own chat window, and this is always to the Standard channel.

Sorry!

Simbo

PS. It is not on GitHub, but will eventually be on LotroInterface. Feel free to hack about with it some more though!

I have been using the 0.94a beta of Songbooker for over a month now. I don’t know if I have mentioned it before, but it seems that it (and 0.94b) still has development package dependencies in it. I had to install the whole QT toolkit (which took over an hour to download) in order to have all the requisite DLLs for it to run. (Another user with the same beta, however, said he did not experience that problem.) I encounter the issue under both WinXP Pro and Win 8.1.

I went to the beta because the release version was failing to identify and skip some (but not all) instances in which a file had more than one part with the same part number, resulting in a parsing error on the SongbookBB.plugindate file when the client tried to load SongbookBB.

I had struggled with the parsing errors for weeks, and the results were consistent every time I ran the release version with the offending songs in the music directory, even right up until minutes before I first ran the beta.

The beta, once I had it running, correctly found all the duplicated part numbers and skipped the associated songs when building the library. However, when I tried then to recreate the problem by running the release version again (in order to document the issue), it successfully found all the bad entries. I cannot figure out why it was suddenly working. Perhaps the addition of the QT package had something to do with it, as that is the only difference I can identify versus the previous state.

About the dependencies – something must have gone wrong there, the full package contains all the Qt-related DLLs it needs. There should be ten DLLs in the same folder as the EXE, and some more in four subdirectories (one each in three of them, and twelve in the fourth). Do you perhaps remember which DLLs seemed to be missing? That might help track down the problem. Only possible reason I can think of is that perhaps the subdirectories were skipped by the unzip tool, but that seems unlikely.

About the duplicated part numbers: The release version should still not recognize those files. Maybe check if now the new version gets called instead of the old one (maybe the link points to the new one now): The new version has a ‘b’ for beta added to the version number (0.94b) in the window title, the release version is 0.94.

> About the dependencies – something must have gone wrong there, the
> full package contains all the Qt-related DLLs it needs.

I thought I was being careful and installed it all from scratch when I moved to a new machine and then did another full reinstall when I was trying to get Songbooker to work, but apparently not. .

> Do you perhaps remember which DLLs seemed to be missing?

The first one it was looking for was Qt5Core.DLL. (I know that because I just tried to run Songbooker on this machine which doesn’t even have LotRO on it. That is indeed the one I first went searching for.) But I didn’t have any in the plugin directory (or elsewhere on the harddrive). That leads me to believe that my recollection of having properly installed it was false. I must’ve tried taking a shortcut by just dragging files instead of getting the DLLs installed.

Is the Songbooker exe supposed to have an icon? Mine both have generic icons.

> About the duplicated part numbers: The release version should still not
> recognize those files.

I don’t have them in front of me, but they were definitely SBkr versions 0.94 and 0.94a (from the titlebars). And I’m 90% certain that both complete successfully now on the files that were problematic before. (Well, after learning of my apparent installation error, let’s reduce it to only “50% certain”.) It didn’t make sense to me, either. Perhaps a coffee deficit impaired my testing. (Okay, maybe make it “20% certain”.)

I will check again. (I copied the problem files to another directory before fixing the ones in the music directory. I also have the unaltered .zip files for them somewhere. So I should have all the material I need for giving it a reasonably thorough re-test.)

Is there anything in particular you’re looking for with regard to 0.94b? If so, after I’m done trying to reconfirm the above behavior, I could reinstall everything (properly this time) and start using the new beta (assuming that it does not lack any of the functionality of the one I use currently).

Ah, if there were no DLLs, perhaps you accidentally downloaded an update version. Those only contain the EXE, as the rest stays the same and need not be distributed with every update. Make sure to download a full package, which should contain all the DLLs in a ZIP file.

As for the duplicated part numbers, the old version will complete the scan, but it will not throw any error messages, and the data file it creates will not work ingame with the Songbook plugin. The new version (0.94b) prints error messages in red text about the multiple track numbers and skips those files, so the output it produces works ingame with Songbook.

What we’re looking for with regard to 0.94b is whether there are still ABC files that can throw it off. If this version produces a data file which causes a parse error ingame with the Songbook plugin, we would like to know (and ideally get the ABC file in question, so we can adapt Songbooker for it).

> As for the duplicated part numbers, the old version will complete
> the scan, but it will not throw any error messages, and the data file
> it creates will not work ingame with the Songbook plugin.

I am aware of that, but perhaps I confused myself and accidentally replaced the .plugindata it generated with a valid one before reloading the plugin in game. I have not yet repeated the test. (Upon rereading what I wrote yesterday, I realised that my wording was misleading. . .only the beta includes version number in the titlebar. But you knew that.)

> What we’re looking for with regard to 0.94b is whether
. . ..
> causes a parse error

In that case, I do not need to try the 0.94b, as 0.94a was able to catch all the instances of erroneous numbering in the 8000 or so files I had for testing.

Unless the executable is supposed to have a custom icon that I am missing due to incomplete installation, I will wait until the next update before changing from the version I am currently using.

HalgorethSeptember 24, 2015

>> all the DLLs in a ZIP file.

> Can you take a look at that again?

Never mind. I was looking at the SongbookBB .zip when I should have been looking at Songbooker2013.zip. I had incorrectly assumed that Sbkr and Sbsr were standalones, and that “You’d also need the libraries packed with the original release” was in reference to the SBB release files.)

Perhaps you could add the link for the full tool package to the above. A friend of mine made the same mistake the other day, and tried to use the beta without first adding the supporting resources from the release bundle.

HalgorethSeptember 28, 2015

I think I may have figured out why it seemed that Songbooker 0.94 suddenly seemed to be working for me after installing and running 0.94a — I probably did not delete the .plugindata file before testing. Thus, if, as I suspect, Songbooker’s incredible speed comes not wasting time re-rereading the headers within files whose pathname and modification date have not changed, then 0.94 may have skipped over the ones that 0.94a had already taken a look at.

Wait, no. Just looked at the .plugindata. 0.94a leaves no record there of files it skipped.

Re-run 0.94 with a “bad” file still in place. (In this case, I only used one. It was SaltyDog_Multi2.abc from the Seeds&Stems collection from Crick.) It did *not* report an error when it scanned, did *not* include it in the .plugindata, and did *not* cause a parsing error. .

Deleting the .plugindata file and running 0.94 again *still* did not generate report a skip or cause an error.

I am more baffled than before.

is there somewhere else that the plugin is keeping data about the files it does not index? The app completed suspiciously fast (8.8 seconds) for one that has to catalogue everything from zero (usually it takes about 45 seconds for 5500 complete unidexed files).

HalgorethSeptember 22, 2015

This is an idea I recently suggested in the Music System forum of the LotRO community. It is, unfortunately, ridiculously complicated.

I don’t know how the standard methodology (if there even is one) for ABC works for including embedded lyrics (in any case, LotRO ABC certainly does not support it anyway). But, if it includes timings (such as, each section of lyrics is associated with a particular point in the song), it could be very handy to have Poetical integrate with SongbookBB to use them. Or, perhaps more likely, devise a timing notation that could be embedded in the Poetical file, rather than embedding lyrics in the ABC.

(Even if a timing method could not be implemented, it would be handy if clicking a button in SongbookBB could read a tag that tells it what lyric file to open up in Poetical, or maybe even one to extract embedded lyrics from the .abc and open them as a new file in Poetical.)

My thought is that Poetical (or some other recitation function, perhaps even built into SongbookBB) would have a builtin timer, read the approximate points in the song that each line is to be delivered, and warn the user (perhaps a second before it is time for the line) to be ready to click. It would start the timer when it sees the chat message that playback has commenced. This would make it a lot easier to know when a long instrumental break is about to end. (I am rubbish at keeping count of beats.)

Options for it could be “send line only when I click”, “send automatically xx seconds after time” (in case you miss your cue, it will send it to catch up), or “”send automatically on time” (no clicking needed, but it might not be spot on with the music).

Creating the recitation script with timings might require either a separate plugin or an external app with a builtin ABC player. (It wouldn’t have to be a very sophisticated player or even know anything about what the various LotRO instruments sound like. Using beeps for all the notes on all the instruments would be sufficient, as long as it is accurate for tempo and syncopation.) One would use the timing app to open a lyric file and a music file. After you hit “play”, the timing app records when you click each lyric line. Then you could edit the timings to adjust them as needed. When you save it, the app stores the timing codes in the lyric file.

The advantage of having it as an in-game plugin would be that it could be used for scripting recitations that include animated emotes, whereas an advantage of doing it externally is that you could have a slider bar to pause or replay at any point in the song without having to start over from the beginning each time.

I wrote
>> Options for it could be “send line only when I click”, “send automatically xx seconds after time” (in case you miss your cue, it will send it to catch up), or “”send automatically on time” (no clicking needed, but it might not be spot on with the music).

After re-reading the earlier messages above, I see that automatic send is not possible for Babble, and, therefore, Poetical as well. Darn.

Even so, it would still be a great aid if Poetical could have time codes and indicate visually when a line is coming coming up. (Maybe with a countdown timer next to each line, or perhaps a * for fhree seconds, ** for one second, and *** for zero to two seconds past due.)

Hullo again!
And thanks for the suggestion – I have been pondering about time markers in songs, as the Badger Songbook already has a timer which could be used. Simbo and I will have to look into whether it is possible to sync Songbook and Poetical so that Poetical can do the timing, or even transfer data back and fourth between them.
However, that will be some time off, I am afraid – I have been making some changes in Songbook which I need to finally get out first! *mutters about Bounder duties getting in the way of tinkering with Songbook*

Most of my problems with LotRO’s chat window stem from it having only the one command line, which is shared by all the tabs.
* I frequently send miss-tells because I change tabs and am apparently incapable of paying close attention to what my output channel is. (It doesn’t help that the interface does not indicate very clearly which tab is active. Customising my channel colours helps a little.)
* If I am writing a message that’s longer than the width of the command line, I cannot easily proofread before sending.
* If I need to use the command line while I’m the middle of typing a message, I have to select my unfinished text, cut it to the clipboard, send my command, then paste my message back in so I may continue typing it. (If I even remember to do that before being distracted by something else.)

I would adore a chat plugin that could give me a new chat window that provides multiple tabs (perhaps detachable?) with filtering and output channel selection and a separate (not shared) text box (not single line) for each. It should also minimize to an icon without losing the chat history and unsent text (or perhaps shutter-slide like the widget mode of HugeBag — I kinda wish SongbookBB could do that; I often want it temporarily out of of the way without resetting the music sync status). And maybe give a warning if I close it when there is an unsent message on one of the tabs.

It looks like ChatEdit http://www.lotrointerface.com/downloads/info571-ChatEdit.html has some of that functionality (text box editing coupled with the ability to send to a selected chat channel or character). However, it does not have multiple tabs, lacks a chat display, and is a screen hog with lots of tools for colouring text. I briefly tried to see if I could modify that plugin to do something kinda like what I’m looking for, but I am out of my depth on the coding.

For filtering rules, it would be nice to be able to indicate whether a rule is to be permanent (that is, it will still be enabled the next time the plugin runs), occasional (will be saved in the list, but will not still be enabled after the current session), or temporary (will be removed from the list when the plugin closes). That would be useful for situations in which there’s someone or some emote currently generating unwanted window traffic, but you don’t want block them permanently or have to remember to disable the filter later.

Having another five or six filtered chat views available (and perhaps the ability to open a second window with another five or six) is something I would get a lot of use out of. I frequently have almost that many IM conversations going on at once and would love to put them onto separate tabs (instead of just buttons on the shared IMs tab), each with its own text entry box. Furthermore, the tab headers themselves could indicate whether there is new traffic (preferably selectable as to whether emotes count as new traffic).

Something I have been struggling with is getting all the music sync notifications into the same window as the Fellowship/Raid messages without all the other emote chatter. The very limited number of tabs available for LotRO’s chat window can often make it difficult to dedicate a tab like that without sacrificing something else important that I need filtered. I’m looking forward to seeing what Babble can do for me.

This is just to say I have used the Songbooker and Songbrowser 0.94b versions on Windows 7 and on Linux Mint (Mint 17.1 Cinnamon 64-bit) using Wine and they worked as intended.

I just copied the new .exes over the previous installation. On Linux Mint/Wine the dialogs to pick directories do not work correctly (they are file open dialogs rather than folder open dialogs) and it is necessary to enter the paths manually in the “badgers-songbooker.cfg” and “badgers-songbrowser.cfg” files in the install directory for these tools

Hello, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to Master Simbo for the beta release that provides a backup in case Poetical is open during a catastrophic event. May you always be served with delicious pies, day and night.

Didn’t take long to see how great the enhancements are to Babble v2. So far, I’ve used it to basically extend the Ignore list. This has helped make the World channel an actual, functional channel by allowing me to block anyone posting nonsense. I’m looking forward to blocking out the NPC’s in say, especially the ones that chatter through concert places, and those that spam text-walls during instances.

I few things that I’d like to suggest:

– The option to hide the UI button. Once things are set, I won’t need to turn Babble off/on, and I don’t mind using the command line to launch it if I need to make changes.

– Cross-character (server-wide) lists. Right now, I go into the PluginData folder and copy the specific character’s Babble2 data over to other characters, so I don’t have to rebuild the lists I’ve already made. Actually, I don’t have any character-specific Babble data, so I wouldn’t mind the ability to have everything be the same for every character.

– HEX or RGB color selection. I know both Lotro chat and Babble share that dang “click-on-the-color-square” color selector. I can never seem to select the same color twice, and in all honesty I really don’t need 64-bit of color options for text. It would be nice to get the exact color I want, using a editline to to enter a HEX or RGB value.

I am glad you find Babble very useful, and I am relieved to hear it works in the French client.

In answer to you questions, it should be possible to increase the font size in the new Babble Chat Window, if that is what you mean. Also, having an option to change the opacity of the chat box is also possible.

Trying out the Zedrock version of Songbook. I get the horizontal line of instruments (scrollable) but when I switch to vertical there are no rows or button to control them. Basically it is the horizontal line but no longer scrollable.

Huhu^^ For the Vertical one… you now are using the resizing main songbook window on the right bottom corner AND the same resizing tool used in the other inside windows : move the grey line (at the top of the instrument slots) with the two little white arrow up/down. The Vertical display is used to have one to any number of lines you might need for having a view on the whole instruments.

I am not sure if anyone still looks at this but i would like to see if i can some how change or remove the dir window or just resize the different windows in the songbook plugin. maybe a update version if anyone still cares. post back?? …